As the biggest tailback on the roster, the promising freshman from Memphis would've been part of the rotation at that position, and he could've been a sig­nificant contributor given his size and speed.

The last time a tailback arrived at Auburn straight out of high school with cre­dentials and measurables similar to Robinson's, he ran for more than 1,000 yards as a freshman and be­came the offensive MVP of the BCS Championship Game.

Instead, for very different reasons, Auburn won't be able to hand the ball to ei­ther Robinson or Mike Dyer this season. Despite every­thing Onterio McCalebb has done and Tre Mason, Mike Blakely and Corey Grant may do, those early exits are a cause for concern.

The concerns about Rob­inson don't stop there.

We know, as Gene Chizik revealed Friday, that Robin­son was deemed a non­-qualifier by the NCAA be­cause his high school guidance counselor altered his transcript and the change or changes made him eligible to play as a freshman. That counselor has resigned.

If Robinson still wants to play at Auburn, he'll have to go to a prep school or a jun­ior college to meet the nec­essary academic require­ments to return for the 2013 season or beyond.

Two different organizations are asking about Robinson: Memphis City Schools and the NCAA. Auburn fans have their own questions, one of which comes straight out of Newton's Third Law of Physics. That's Sir Isaac Newton, by the way, not Cam Newton.

Sir Isaac could've been predicting Iron Bowl collisions to come when he postulated that, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Ergo, Auburn fans ask, why is Robinson ineligible because of an unauthorized grade change when former Alabama player Josh Chapman was not?

Short answer: The cases are similar in nature but far from exact duplicates, based on the current information.

Memphis City Schools have just begun the kind of in-depth investigation that retired federal Judge Sam Pointer Jr. put together about Hoover High School for the Hoover Board of Education in 2007.

Like Robinson, Chapman did have an unauthorized grade change in high school, but that's the end of the parallel as far as we know at the moment.

Former Alabama nose guard Josh Chapman visits another of his old schools, Simmons Middle School in Hoover, on Jan. 26, 2012. (Birmingham News/Mark Almond)

Chapman had one Algebra II grade as a senior changed from an 89 to a 90, from a B to an A, and the change made him academically eligible to play as an Alabama freshman. We don't know the specifics of the grade or grades that were changed for Robinson.

Chapman's grade was changed by a counselor who believed there had been a computer-rounding error. The course's teacher, who wasn't consulted about the change before it was made, later called Chapman one of the better students in his class.

A phone call from then-Alabama assistant coach Kevin Steele to a Hoover counselor in late May of Chapman's senior year set in motion the events that led to Chapman's grade change. Steele informed the counselor that Chapman's GPA was .007 shy of NCAA eligibility, though the Pointer Report said the difference appeared to be .07.

The report also said, "There is no suggestion that (Steele) was asking for any change in Chapman's grades."

Scoff at that if you like, but consider this conclusion of the Pointer Report: "We are convinced that, though clearly an unauthorized grade change, this was the result of an innocent human error . . . without any purposeful intent to benefit a football player."

Contrast that conclusion with the original Memphis City Schools statement on Robinson's situation, which said, in part: "Academic fraud is not and will not be tolerated."

One of the key questions about Robinson's altered transcript will be if Auburn knew of any changes in it. Was the transcript altered before or after July 16, 2011, the day Robinson committed to Auburn?

One coach at another university that recruited Robinson said Saturday it was common knowledge that he had work to do to get eligible academically as a college freshman.

Chapman didn't make much impact as an Alabama freshman. He played in the first three games in 2007 and then was sidelined by injury the rest of the season. He received a medical redshirt, which allowed him to play until 2011 and anchor the second national championship defense of his college career.

That's another difference between Chapman and Robinson.

The running back had a chance to make a real dent out of the gate, but he won't get that chance. Now Auburn has to hope for two things: That Robinson will come back at some point to help the Tigers -- and that his altered transcript won't come back to hurt them.